Skip to main content

Yamanaka Sets Course Record, 207 Sub-66 at National University Half Marathon Championships (updated)

by Brett Larner



19-year-old Nittai University second-year Hideto Yamanaka lived up to his superb 2014 Hakone Ekiden First Stage win today in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, taking nearly five minutes off his half marathon best to win the National University Half Marathon Championships in a course record 1:02:09.  Despite cold temperatures and on-and-off rain, Yamanaka led aggressively from the start before getting away in the final kilometers to win by more than twenty seconds over Waseda University's Daiki Taguchi and Koki Ido and Komazawa University's Yoshihiro Nishizawa and Shota Baba.

The momentum of Yamanaka and the others in the front pack pulled the entire field along, all of the top ten going sub-63, nine of them in PB times.  For the first time in history more than 200 men cleared 66 minutes in a single half marathon, a new world record which confirmed the upward trend in Japanese university men's performances that has only increased since Tokyo won the 2020 Olympics.  All told well over 500 men ran under 1:10, surpassing even November's Ageo City Half Marathon in high-end depth.

Update: Earlier reports of 200 breaking 1:06:00 were based on university division results. General division results were published on Mar. 8, with three additional men in that category bringing the total number sub-1:06:00 to 203.  An update to the university division results on Mar. 10 gave a grand total of 207.



Fewer collegiates lined up at the weekend's other big half, the 65th running of the Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon in Kumamoto, to which Kenyan Johana Maina (Kenya) returned from a 1:29:55 debut for 30 km there two weeks ago to win by more than a minute in 1:03:07.  Keisuke Sago (Takushoku Univ.) was the top university runner, 5th in 1:04:39, with Mao Kuroda (Team Wacoal) winning the women's 10 km in 33:20 by a second over high schooler Yuri Nozoe (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) and Masashi Sakamoto (Kakusho H.S.) claiming the high school boys' 10 km title in 30:09 by two seconds over Yuki Koga (Omuta H.S.).

17th National University Men's Half Marathon Championships
Tachikawa, Tokyo, 3/2/14
click here for complete results

Men
1. Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:09 - CR, PB
2. Daiki Taguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:30 - PB
3. Koki Ido (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:33 - PB
4. Yoshihiro Nishizawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:33 - PB
5. Shota Baba (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:37 - PB
6. Yuki Matsumura (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:02:46
7. Ryo Shirayoshi (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:49 - PB
8. Takahiro Yagihara (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:49 - PB
9. Masahito Miura (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:52 - PB
10. Keita Shioya (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:57 - PB
11. Yusuke Nishiyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:02
12. Toshiyuki Yanagi (Waseda Univ.) - 1:03:04 - PB
13. Shoya Okuno (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:05 - PB
14. Shinichiro Nakamura (Waseda Univ.) - 1:03:07 - PB
15. Yoshitaka Ogawa (Meiji Univ.) - 1:03:11 - PB
-----
50. Renya Sugiyama (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:04:09 - PB
100. Ryuta Seki (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:04:47
150. Takahiro Ogawa (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:29
200. Eishi Nakahira (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:05:55
300. Shuya Kaizaki (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:06:48
400. Wataru Saito (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:08:02
500. Ryogo Wada (Asia Univ.) - 1:09:21
546. Yuta Okuyama (Saitama Univ.) - 1:09:59

Women
1. Haruna Horikawa (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 1:15:53

65th Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon
Tamana, Kumamoto 3/2/14
click here for complete results

Men's Half Marathon
1. Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 1:03:07
2. Dishon Karukuwa Maina (Kenya/Team Omokawa Lumber) - 1:04:11
3. Kaoru Hirosue (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 1:04:29
4. Jun Shinoto (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:04:36
5. Keisuke Sago (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:04:39

Women's 10 km
1. Mao Kuroda (Team Wacoal) - 33:20
2. Yuri Nozoe (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) - 33:21
3. Yuki Nakamura (Team Miyazaki Ginko) - 33:29
4. Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 33:31
5. Haruka Tobimatsu (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) - 33:38

High School Boys' 10 km
1. Masashi Sakamoto (Kakusho H.S.) - 30:09
2. Yuki Koga (Omuta H.S.) - 30:11
3. Kohei Okamoto (Kyushu Kokusai Prep H.S.) - 30:15

(c) 2014 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

bagdaddy said…
Love how there are no comments. I wouldn't even have placed in the top 500. Ran d1 ncca. Trained seriously for 10 years. Only barely broke 1:10 for a half I suck at distance running. And you probably do too. Japan rocks.
March 8, 2014 at 10:32 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more